SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  State lawmakers sent Gov. Jerry Brown a pair of consumer protection bills Monday that prevent health insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions and limit how much more insurers can charge older residents.

The legislation updates California laws to match new rules under the federal Affordable Care Act and will give state agencies the power to enforce and regulate individual insurance rules.

The Assembly passed ABx1-2 on a 49-20 vote, while the Senate passed SBx1-2 on a 27-9 vote. The Assembly bill makes changes to the insurance code, while the Senate bill makes changes to the health and safety code.

The bills now go to the governor, who is expected to sign them. They were part of a special legislative session convened by Brown to implement national health care reforms in California.

The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

I don’t think it is quite that easy. I think what is going to happen is that we are probably going to get down to about three or four insurance carriers - Aetna, Blue Cross, United Healthcare and maybe Cigna. Aetna has just merged with Coventry, Cigna and Great West have joined forces, United keeps taking over a larger share of the market, including handling claims for a huge group of military recipients who were covered by Tricare. And, of course, you have AARP which is also part of United Healthcare. Blue Cross is in every state. Will all the Blue Cross plans merge? Who knows. But I do believe that at least three of these carriers are setting themselves up to be in a position to handle a single payor system and most likely United for everything except Federal employees who will remain with Blue Cross and School Districts who will remain with Aetna.

Doctors getting out of networks, refusing to take any insurance and a basic lack of providers is also going to play into this scenario. OTOH, medical care may end up being like it was when I was growing up a long time ago and people didn’t go to the doctor unless they really were ill.

7
posted on 05/07/2013 2:06:18 PM PDT
by Grams A
(The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)

I think what is going to happen is that we are probably going to get down to about three or four insurance carriers - Aetna, Blue Cross, United Healthcare and maybe Cigna.

But that essentially is what already exists no. Coventry was just purchased by Aetna. Kaiser is the largest insurer in the state, followed by Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, and Health Net. Health Net lets all of it's over 65 business get run by United Health Care which is already the provider for all the plans offered by AARP. The state has driven out almost every other insurer.

Cigna and Great West are very small providers here and the vast majority is controlled by the big players. When the end comes for private health insurance in the state, it will probably be run by a combination of the large insurers who already have a bureaucracy in place to do so. They allow them to administrate the system until a state run infrastructure can be created.

The joke is that it all may collapse of its own weight and the private insurance companies will be invited back to pick up the slack. Then we will have the two tiered coverage most of the socialized world has. Crap coverage for the average man, and private coverage if you have money or clout. Bleh

more legally mandated destruction of private markets and private insurance

because certainly if the claims costs for a certain demographic segment are going up and the law prevents insurers from increasing premiums for that demographic segment, commensurate with how much that segments claims are increasing, then the insurers will in the rightful course of business raise everyone elses rates by MORE than how much THEIR claims might be increasing, to help cover what it is going to be lost on “older residents”

pushing more working people and their employers to “give up” and get on the federal insurance welfare program

again, the useful idiot Liberals, the primary political fools used by the Marxists, are carrying the Marxists destructive water with their Liberal “good intentions”, while their solutions - ignorantly to them, understood by the Marxists - make matter worse

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